But perhaps the most intriguing character of the seventh novel is that of Ignotus Peverell, the original owner of the Invisibility Cloak (see Chapter 3), and an ancestor of Harry Potter. The surname Peverell belongs to an influential British family, and two English towns (Sampford Peverell and Bradford Peverell) bear the name. Ignotus is Latin for “unknown,” which is an interesting choice for the bearer of the Invisibility Cloak.
TOURIST TIP
If you want to taste the best vol-au-vent, a French pastry mentioned in Deathly Hallows, go to France, where you’ll find them filled with escargot (snails) and other delicacies! Or, if you can’t go to France, at least go to a French restaurant in New Orleans. Invented by Antonin Carême, an early-twentieth -century French pastry chef, vol-au-vent is a difficult pastry to create, because it’s supposed to be extremely light and delicate. In fact, its name translates to "flight of the wind.”
The Peverell family, along with many other wizarding families, lived in Godric’s Hollow, an area named after Godric Gryffindor, one of the Hogwarts co-founders. This naming convention—a person’s name, followed by the word “hollow”—is not only a British one. Deep in the Appalachian mountains (and in other rural, mountainous regions of the United States), streets and areas are named in this same way: “Xxx Hollow.” Hollow is simply another word for “valley,” and the family or person who settled a particular valley became its namesake.
A Healing Herb
Essence of Dittany is a wizarding cure-all that stops a wound from bleeding and quickly begins the healing process. Dittany also exists in the Muggle world, but it grows only in Crete, where its essential oil has long been prized by healers for digestive and rheumatic ailments. The plant itself is an herb that is supposed to have aphrodisiac properties, in addition to its ability to heal. The botanical name for White Dittany is Dictamnus albus—that’s right, as in Albus Dumbledore—because albus is Latin for white.
New Incantations and Spells
Deathly Hallows brings a variety of new incantations and spells, many of which are used to protect homes and other areas.
As Lord Voldemort takes power over the wizarding world, more and more wizards must find ways to hide and protect themselves. In Deathly Hallows, Rowling gives us a variety of protective enchantments, including the following:• Caterwauling Charm: This unusual charm (with an unknown incantation) alerts Death Eaters when someone is moving about in Hogsmeade after dark. To “caterwaul” is to make a loud howling noise, a term derived from the Dutch word kater, for tomcat, an animal that makes a loud screeching sound when prowling for female cats.
• Cave Inimicum!: This incantation has nothing to do with protecting a cave, which one might expect. Instead, it’s derived from (no surprise!) Latin words (cave in this case is pronounced CAH-vay). From the Latin caveo, meaning guard against, beware of, or get security against, and inimicum, meaning hostile, harmful, enemy, or foe, this incantation guards against enemies.
• Muffliato!: This protective enchantment (first introduced in Half-Blood Prince, but not used extensively until Deathly Hallows), derives from an old use of the word “muffle,” in which a person’s head and face were wrapped up (in a muff—that is, soft fur or other material) to keep the person from seeing or speaking. The person’s voice—as well as any sound trying to reach the wrapped person’s ears—were, therefore, muffled. Likewise, this incantation muffles conversations so that others cannot overhear them.
MAGIC TALE
On Potterwatch, an underground wizarding wireless program akin to the "Voice of America” during the Cold War, Remus Lupin uses the code name Romulus. Why? Because Remus and Romulus were brothers who reportedly became the founders of Rome. The boys were raised by a wolf and are the most famous of all feral children. Although Romulus later killed Remus, their connection to each other—and to wolves—is unmistakable.
• Protego Totalum!: This incantation is an extension of the Shield Charm (which has the incantation Protego!—see Chapter 12), adding the Latin totum, which means entire or the whole of. Therefore, this charm shields, well, everything!
• Repello Muggletum!: This incantation is derived from the Latin repello, meaning drive back or repulse, the made-up word Muggle (referring to people without wizarding powers), and the Latin tum, meaning at the moment. In other words, repulse Muggles now!
• Salvio Hexia!: From the Latin salvus, meaning safe and undamaged, this is a general safety hex.
• The Taboo: This curse is one of Rowling’s most creative, because it jinxes Voldemort’s name so that anyone using it immediately loses all of the previously mentioned protective enchantments. Of course, Harry Potter is one of the few wizards who ever uses Voldemort’s name (instead of calling him “You-Know-Who” or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”), so this curse is an ingenious way for Voldemort to quickly find Harry. By definition, a taboo is a Polynesian word that refers to a sacred curse put on a person or object, rendering him (or her or it) untouchable or even unmentionable. Thus, Voldemort’s name becomes unmentionable; but when it is mentioned, it enacts a curse.
KING’S ENGLISH
A kissing gate, like the one placed at the entrance to the Godric’s Hollow cemetery, is an entirely British concept—a gate that can’t accidentally be left open. One half of the gate swings back and forth, like any gate would. But the other half traps the swing side with two parallel walls of fencing. The swing side is stopped in one direction by one wall, and in the other direction by the other wall, so that it can swing only a few feet in either direction. One person at a time can pass through the gate by slithering sideways between the swing gate and either wall, but most farm animals can’t figure it out! This type of gate is common at the entrance to a graveyard, because it effectively keeps farm animals from wandering in and grazing on the cemetery grass.
Rowling introduces many more spells in Deathly Hallows, above and beyond the protective enchantments:• Confringo! (Blasting Curse): From the Latin confringo, meaning to break into pieces, this curse explodes just about anything, including an entire room.
• Defodio!: From the Latin defodio, meaning dig or bury, this incantation enlarges a passageway, blasting it apart, if necessary.
• Deprimo!: From the Latin deprimo, meaning to sink or keep down, this incantation blasts a hole into whatever is below you and lowers you quickly. This incantation is like Descendo!
• Descendo!: From the Latin descendo, meaning to descend or fall, this incantation causes something to lower.
• Duro!: This rather frightening incantation turns cloth into stone— and may, in fact, turn anything into stone. Turning objects into stone has a long history in fairy tales, especially those involving trolls, and both Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings include stone-turning. This spell is taken straight from the Latin duro, which means to make something hard, like steel.
• Geminio! (Gemino Curse): This curse makes many copies of an object—so many, in fact, that you might literally be squished to death if this happens in a small room. From the Latin gemino, meaning to double the force of, or repeat.
• Glisseo!: This ultra-fun incantation turns stairs into a slide or chute. From the French glissade, this is a ballet term that means glide or slide. It’s derived from glisser, an Old French word meaning to glide, which has the same root as the word “glacier.”
• Homenum revelio!: From the Latin homo, meaning human being, and revelo, meaning reveal, it’s not a big surprise that this incantation tells the wizard whether a human is present. The Latin ad hominem literally means “argument against the man” and is a way of replaying to an argument or claim by attacking the person. This approach is today known as an ad hominem attack.
• Obscuro!: Pulled directly from the Latin obscuro, meaning to conceal, obscure, or darken, this incantation puts a blindfold over someone’s eyes.
• Piertotum Locomotor!: From the Latin pietas, meaning loyalty and dutifulness, and totum, meaning all of or entire
, this intriguing incantation makes statues and suits of armor come to life and protect Hogwarts. Evoking this incantation means, “All you loyal ones, move!”
• Protego Horribilis!: From the Latin protego, meaning to protect or defend, and horribilis, meaning terrible, horrible, or monstrous, this incantation is used to guard Hogwarts against impending attackers (at least attackers who are terrible, horrible, and monstrous, which, let’s face it, most are).
• The Trace: This charm finally reveals how underage wizarding activity is detected by Ministry officials. The English word trace is derived from the Latin tractus, which means dragging or pulling along. This is interesting, because that’s exactly what the Trace is doing: dragging or pulling along evidence of underage wizardry. The name also resonates with watchers of TV crime shows, who know that investigators always look for traces of the criminal—any mark or evidence left at the scene of the crime.
KING’S ENGLISH
Seems like those Brits have a different word for everything! If you leave someplace quickly, you scarper. If you should happen to leave without permission, you’ve done a bunk. If a uniformed policeman tries to grab hold of you as you’re running away, the liveried policeman tries to cop hold. Should you run into a large tent, the kind set up at parties and weddings, you’ve just run into a marquee.
Horcruxes
Horcruxes are central to Rowling’s sixth and seventh novels, and you can find the basics on these evil containers in Chapter 13. But new information tells us that each Horcrux is strikingly similar to the Ring of Power in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Like the One Ring, a Horcrux worn around one’s neck gradually weighs down the wearer, making him or her more and more fatigued. But as with the Ring, the fatigue is far more than physical, because both the One Ring and a Horcrux can make those people around the object think the worst of others. These evil magical objects play on internal fears, causing anyone close to them to begin to doubt others—and themselves.
Rowling tells us that people can get emotionally attached to Horcruxes; in fact, a portion of a soul stored inside the Horcrux can get into someone so attached. This has echoes of Tolkien’s Gollum, who became so emotionally attached to the Ring that he thought of it as a person, his Precious. Perhaps the Ring contained a portion of the soul of Sauron (who is otherwise bodyless). The similarities are eerie.
We also find out that Horcruxes cannot be summoned through a Summoning Spell, nor can they be destroyed by any but the most magical of objects (just as the Ring cannot be destroyed by anything but the fires of Mount Doom). And we discover the identity of the final two Horcruxes: the diadem (which is like a small crown) of Rowena Ravenclaw (a Hogwarts founder), and Nagini, Voldemort’s snake.
But perhaps the most important new information about Horcruxes comes in the form of Rowling’s spiritual admonition: that to undo a Horcrux (to unsplit your soul), you must feel great remorse, and in doing so, the pain of that remorse can kill you. Anyone who has ever done anything hurtful or regretful can tap into that idea!
The Deathly Hallows
The Deathly Hallows aren’t so much advanced wizardry as they are components of a wizarding fairy tale that turn out to be true! Wizard children are raised on fairy tales just as Muggle children are, although the titles and the content differ. But a cornerstone of wizarding fairy tales is the story of the three Peverell brothers who possessed the Deathly Hallows.
TOURIST TIP
The Forest of Dean, an important setting in Deathly Hallows, is a real place in Gloucestershire County, England. Originally settled by the Romans, it was later the royal hunting grounds of the Tudor kings. Today, it ranks as the most family-friendly tourist attraction in England. If you’re in London and want to check it out, visit .
The word hallow is drawn from Old English and German terms that all mean something holy or sacred. Thus, the Deathly Hallows refer to sacred items that are related to death in some way. There are three Hallows:• The Elder Wand (its symbol is a line): This special wand, one that is supposed to vanquish all other wands, is called both the Deathstick and the Wand of Destiny; that is, it can either be used for evil or for good. But like Tolkien’s Ring of Power, it’s awfully tough to wield something that powerful and use it only for good.“Elder” is an interesting name for this wand, because that word has several meanings and interpretations. In the most well-known sense of the word, it means oldest or even ancient, as the wand likely is. Elder also means highest-ranking or of superior rank, like elders in a church, marking the wand as the single most powerful wand in the world. Elder also refers to a small tree that’s best known for its jam-friendly berries (elderberries), so the name could allude to the wood used to make it. Finally, the Elder Futhark is a Germanic and Norse runic alphabet, the oldest of such alphabets (see Chapter 13 for more on runes). Elder Futhark runes were inscribed on weapons (and the wand is quite a weapon!) for hundreds of years; in fact, the angular shape of the runic alphabet is thought to exist because of the constraints of metal- and wood-stamping the second through eighth centuries, angles being far easier to stamp than rounded markings. Thus the name could refer to any runic markings that may exist on the wand itself.
• The Resurrection Stone (its symbol is a circle): This stone is not another Sorcerer’s Stone, but instead enables ghostly renditions of the dead not to actually come back to life, but to interact with the stone-bearer. This can be detrimental if the stone-bearer chooses to focus too much on the shades of the dead and fails to live himself.In July 1981 (when J.K. Rowling would have been in her teens), The Avengers comic book featured an episode called “The Resurrection Stone.” This stone is strikingly similar to Rowling’s stone, in that it could bring the dead back to life, although it was more powerful than Rowling’s stone, because it didn’t just bring back a spirit, but brought back the body, the spirit—the whole enchilada. Questers in The Avengers story sought this stone, just as wizards do. But the comic-book stone was deeply evil—as with a Horcrux, something within the stone communicated with anyone holding it, temping them in various malevolent ways. We know that Rowling’s Stone has the power to badly damage any human trying to use it, but it is not necessarily evil.
• The Cloak of Invisibility (its symbol is a triangle): This cloak is the Invisibility Cloak discussed in Chapter 3, and it may seem rather benign compared to the other Hallows. But as Bilbo discovered when wearing the Ring of Power in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, being invisible can be incredibly powerful, even when one does still have a corporeal body and leaves footprints!
The Deathly Hallows are a little like the Rock, Paper, Scissors children’s game, in that each can both beat and be beaten by the others. The Hallows, however, moved beyond children’s stories or games and into a true quest for the three objects for many wizards, who believed that any person who bore all three Hallows would be unbeatable. Likewise, those seeking the Stone in The Avengers and those seeking the Ring (which, like the cloak, made the wearer invisible) in The Lord of the Rings also believed that owning such objects would make them all-powerful for eternity. Such was the case for the wizard called Grindelwald (see Chapter 1), who believed the Hallows actually existed and sought them, hoping to do good with them, but growing increasingly evil until he was the epitome of wizard Darkness. Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945.
Rowling also makes a commentary on children’s literature in her explanation of the Hallows, telling her readers that children’s fairy tales might just have more power in them than we think. Lord Voldemort, it turns out, has no respect for children’s stories (the fiend!), so he does not believe the stories of the Hallows and thus misses his chance to be unbeatable.
Fiendfyre
Fiendfyre is cursed fire—that is, a powerful brand of Dark Magic that creates fire-breathing monsters that can consume buildings, people, and even Horcruxes. The word fiend is derived from a couple of Old English terms that mean hate, which points to the Dark nature of fiendfyre. “The Fiend” is also a term that means Satan, so we see again t
hat the term fiend refers to deep evil. Fyre, on the other hand, is the Middle English spelling of “fire” that we see in Beowulf, for example. Originally from the German pyre, meaning golden embers, the word gradually changed to fyre, and finally, fire.
MAGIC TALE
Besom, which is used as a term of degradation in Deathly Hallows ("you old besom”), doesn’t mean biddy or hag or scoundrel, as you may think. Instead, it means a broom—specifically, a bundle of twigs tied to a handle (which exactly describes the brooms of the wizarding world). Celtic witches have long been reported to use besoms to clean and purify their sacred spaces—kind of a feng shui thing. Incidentally, the broom used in the sport of curling is also called a besom.
The Journey Ends
And so the journey of Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Snape, Voldemort, and all the others in Rowling’s cast of characters comes to a close. For more than 4,000 pages that were more than 10 years in the making, Rowling has kept readers delighted, intrigued, and even at times frightened (case in point: the first chapter of Goblet of Fire).
Rowling excels as a writer of scenes, which means that for over 90 percent of those pages, Harry and company are walking, eating, talking—this is, moving and acting in some way. Rowling also creates characters that are impossible not to love (or hate, as the case may be), such that readers celebrate each victory and grieve each setback—and there were so many of those. But mostly, Rowling’s gift for detail is what sets her apart; she never misses an opportunity to describe the magical world with such specificity that … well, that we believe it actually exists. What Harry Potter fan hasn’t wanted to yell Accio keys! when running late, hasn’t wanted to Apparate or use a Portkey (or bewitch a car to fly) to avoid rush hour traffic, or hasn’t wished a love potion or truth serum actually exists. It’s a world we all fantasize about living in—sans an evil Dark Lord and corrupt government, of course. But even that intrigues us, because we hope we would all be as brave, noble, and humble as Harry and his friends, should such evil overtake the world.
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